Warriors at Sacramento shootaround: David Lee misses session will illness, Harrison Barnes ruled out for Wednesday and Thursday

As he prepared for his team’s penultimate preseason game, Warriors head coach Mark Jackson decided that he wanted to treat Wednesday’s game at Sacramento similar to the way he’d approach a regular-season contest — playing his starters more minutes and being more exact with his substitution patterns.

But that might not be possible, because Jackson won’t have one of his top six guys and might be without two of them. The coach ruled Harrison Barnes (foot/toe) out for the final two exhibition games and said David Lee missed Wednesday’s shootaround with an illness and will be a game-time decision.

Jackson said he’d prefer to treat Wednesday’s exhibition like a real game, because Thursday’s exhibition finale against Portland will be a back-to-back contest and a good chance to rest his starters as they continue to re-adjust their body clocks after a week-long trip to China.

As Jackson was talking about the final two exhibition games, Barnes was practicing his post moves and coming off screens to take jumpers — another stride in his recovery from an inflamed foot/toe. Jackson said he thinks the second-year forward will be ready for the regular-season opener Oct. 30.

“That’s not locked in, but that’s our hope. That’s what we expect,” Jackson said. “The main thing is that we don’t want it to be a nagging injury. We want to make sure he takes the proper time and gets it healthy to the point where it’s no longer a concern.”

Even though Barnes has been out since playing less than five minutes Oct. 7, Jackson said the forward is still in the running to be a starter. The coach said Barnes, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala are competing for two spots alongside Andrew Bogut, Lee and Stephen Curry.

“I’m still playing that all out, and I haven’t made a decision,” Jackson said. “It’s what puts our team in the best position to win. That’s it.

“You can be the best player, but at the end of the day, my decision will be whatever makes us the best team. It’s as simple as that.

“We’ve seen the Sixth Man of the Year Award go to guys who were clearly among the top five players on their teams, but it made their teams better to bring them off of the bench.”

Thompson has started only two games this preseason, but he’s logged a team-high 155 minutes and is averaging a team-best 17.2 points per game.

“I’m comfortable scoring, so I don’t mind,” Thompson said. “If it’s off the bench or in the starting lineup, you know what? I know I’m going to play a big role, so it doesn’t matter to me. … I have the mind-set to go out there and get buckets. It works coming off the bench or starting – whatever helps this team. If they need to add bench scoring, that’s cool. If they need me to come in and start and be a threat from the perimeter, that’s great, too.”